The State - News from March 17, 1988

Cathy Evelyn Smith, the woman convicted of injecting comedian John Belushi with a fatal dose of cocaine and heroin in Hollywood in 1982, was paroled after serving half of a three-year prison term. Smith, 40, a former drug addict and rock groupie, left the California Institution for Women at Frontera in the custody of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, which will hold her pending a hearing on possible deportation to her native Canada. Smith was originally charged with murder. But in a June, 1986, plea bargain with prosecutors, she pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter. Smith was paroled because of good behavior and prison work credits, a prison spokesman said.